10 Worst Terror Attacks that Devastated the World

It is natural they say – For man to be jealous, to be hateful, to betray and to wrong one another because we all have a dark side, but nothing in this world can justify the preposterous killing of either a single or a 1000 innocent lives in the name of superficial religious claim or merely revenge. Terrorism is one such man-made disaster, which destroys lives on both sides, for the terrorists who spend their lives in hatred and commit the heinous crime that is murder as well as that of innocent civilians who are mere preys in the whole system, as a result terrorism does no good to anyone, it only destroys lives. Yet, this monstrous act has been eating up the good in our societies since a long time and it saddens me the most to say that it is still in place and is expanding its reach.

Following are the most devastating and catastrophic terrorist attacks and the countries which had to witness them:

10. Boeing-747 Explosion:

This was the first aviation bombing of 747 jumbo-jet, when on 23 June 1985 Air India flight 182 “Emperor Kanishka” from Toronto to Delhi exploded at an altitude of 31,000 feet, crashing into the Atlantic Ocean with 307 passengers and 22 crew members, and none of them made it alive. Among the passengers 268 of them were Canadians, due to which this event became the largest mass murder in Canadian history. It was suspected that this attack was organised and executed by members of the Sikh militant group ‘Babbar Khalsa’, retaliating against India for Operation Blue Star that had flushed Sikh militant groups from Golden Temple premises and surrounding areas.

Wreckage of Air India flight 182

9. Cinema Rex fire, Iran:

Who among those going to watch the movie ‘The Deers’ could have ever imagined that they would never return, when on 19 August 1978, 4 men barred all entry and exit gates of Cinema Rex in Abadan, Iran, drenched the entire space with petrol and set it ablaze on fire, while approximately 470 individuals who were in there suffered a torturous and painful death as they were burnt alive. The men responsible for this attack were later on confirmed to be Islamic Militants.

The Burning Hall

8. Russian apartment bombings:

A wave of fear and terror was spread in Russia, when a series of time bomb explosions containing RDX, began on 4th September 1999 and continued till 13th September 1999, shattering and devastating four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk that killed 293 people and severly injured around 1000 lives. Official investigations declared that these attacks were carried out by Achemez Gochiyaev and ordered by Islamist warlords IbnAl-Khattab and Abu Omar al-saif.

Apartments bombed

7. Beslan School Hostage Crisis:

The Beslan School Hostage Crisis, was a continuous 3 day suffering from 1-3rd september, for the entire city of Beslan in Russia, when on 1st september 2004, 1,100 hostages including 777 children subjected to endless pain for 3 days, it began when the Riysdus-Salikhin Battalion, sent by the Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev occupied School Number One (SNO) in the town. These hostage-takers showed absolutely no mercy in taking 385 lives (186 of whom were children) and causing non-fatal injuries to approximately 783 people.

The Remembrance

6. Mumbai Serial Bombings:

First of its kind, serial bomb blasts that the world had seen, happened in Mumbai, on the dreadful day of 12 march 1993. These were 12 car bombs containing RDX, which exploded in the most crowded areas of Mumbai that included The Bombay Stock Exchange, Air India Building, Sena Bhawan, Passport office, hotels and bazaars, also grenades were thrown at the Chatrapati shivaji Airport Terminus, which altogether took the lives of 317 people along with 1500 non-fatal injuries to others. This attack was planned and executed by the most powerful criminal organisation of Mumbai Underworld ‘The D-Company’ headed by Dawood Ibrahim with the help of subordinates Tiger Menon and Yakub Menon.

A devastated building in Worli

5. The Sarin Warfare:

It was a Japanese doomsday, when the city of Tokyo was prey to domestic terrorism, on March 20, 1995, who were members of the cult movement Aum Shnrikyo. The attack was led by a chemical weapon ‘Sarin'(a chemical weapon owing to its extreme potency as a nerve agent) that was released on three metro lines in the Tokyo subway namely the Chiyoda Line, Marunouchi Line and Hibiya Line which resulted in loss of 12 lives, severely injuring 50 and caused temporary vision problems to nearly 5000 people altogether.

Aftermath of the attack

4. Madrid Train attacks:

This attack is considered to be the deadliest attack on European soil when on 11 March 2004, just 2 days before Spanish elections, 10 time bombs were exploded inside 4 daily commuter trains of Madrid stations, resulting in 191 fatalities and injuring around 2,000 lives, during the morning rush hours. Investigation of this incident revealed that perpetrators behind this attack was a local cell of Al-Qaeda who used Goma-2 backpack bombs as weapons of destruction.

Spain: 11-M

3. US Embassy Strike:

7 August 1998, On this fatal day 2 African nations were attacked within a 5 minute gap, both on the United nation’s Embassy in Kenya and Tanzania. A group calling itself the “Liberation Army for Holy Sites” took credit for the bombings, which American intelligence agencies believed were actually ‘Egyptian Islamic Jihad’ supported by Osama-bin-laden and other members of Al-Qaeda. The brutal drill was carried out by suicide bombers in trucks carrying loads of Explosives, that took lives of almost 300 people and brutally injured other 4,500.

US Embassy, Nairobi

2. Yazidi Community Tragedy:

Considered the second most destructing attack after 9/11, Iraq suffered from 4 coordinated suicide bomb attacks on 14 august, 2007 detonated in the towns of Kahtaniya and Jazeera, near Mosul. A religious minority community was targeted in these attacks, known as the Yazidis, which killed 520 and injured almost 1500 others of them. Although, none of the terrorist groups claimed responsibility, suspected perpetrators as per U.S suspicion was Al-Qaeda.

Yazidi community Bombings

1. 9/11 Crisis:

The leading Economic and political power of the world, could not save its countrymen when on the morning of September 11, 2001 the Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda launched a planned deadly attack on the soil of the United Nations of America. The attack initiated with the hijacking of 4 American Passenger Airlines namely American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 77 and United Airlines Flight 93. The former 2 hijacked airplanes were forced to crash into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center Complex in New York city, the third airplane crashed into the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense called ‘The Pentagon’ in Airlington County, Virginia and the United airlines flight 93 which according to the plan laid by the terrorists was supposed to go in the direction of Washington D.C but was instead crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania, as some of its passengers tried to overcome the hijackers. This resulted in complete collapse of the Twin Towers and a partial collapse of The Pentagon along with partial destruction of building adjacent to the targeted ones taking the lives of 2993 and caused serious injuries to other 8,900 people, and resulting in the world’s most devastating terrorist attack ever.